A variety of methods are applied in order to lessen the air resistance in a running vehicle. Recently, the application of an active air flap has increased, and the active air flap selectively blocks a flow of air into an engine depending on a vehicle speed.
A radiator grill 13 is installed at the front of a vehicle in order to introduce air into an engine room of the vehicle, and the air introduced through the radiator grill 13 is used for cooling various coolers such as a radiator. However, when the vehicle is driven at high speed, a flow of air introduced into the engine room 11 through the radiator grill 13 may act as resistance to the operation of the vehicle.
In order to solve such a problem, an active air flap 120 capable of selectively opening and closing the radiator grill 13 has been recently applied.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of flaps 120 and a shroud 130 are installed in the engine room 11. The plurality of flaps 120 are rotated by an actuator, and the shroud 130 is installed outside the flaps 120, and induces air introduced through the radiator grill 13 to the flaps 120. The flaps 120 open or close the radiator grill 13 depending on an operating condition.
In the active air flap according to the related art, however, an end of the shroud 130 is not placed against the radiator grill 13 or a bumper frame 12a having a bumper 12 installed therein. Thus, a flow of air introduced between the end of shroud 130 and the radiator grill 13 or the bumper frame 12a may leak or the introduction of air into the engine room 11 may not be completely blocked. When the active air flap is directly mounted on the radiator grill 13 or the bumper frame 12a, the circumference of the shroud 130 is closely attached to the radiator grill 13 or the bumper frame 12a. In this case, the sealing performance is improved, but the efficiency of the assembling operation is reduced because the weight of the bumper 12 is increased. In order to prevent the reduction in efficiency of the assembling operation, the shroud 130 is not directly mounted on the bumper frame 12a or the radiator grill 13.
For this reason, a space is formed between the circumference of the shroud 130 and the radiator grill 13 or the bumper 12. As indicated by ‘L’ of FIG. 1, air may leak through the space.
While the active air flaps 120 selectively close the radiator grill, an introduction of air into the engine room 11 must be blocked. However, a flow of air leaking to the circumference of the shroud 130 may be introduced into the engine room 11. In this case, a flow loss may occur, and the active air flap does not normally, or optimally, perform its function.